What is Magic: The Gathering?

You're here because you want to learn the Magic: The Gathering game, the world's premier trading card game. It was the first of its kind, and it's still the best and the biggest.

In the Magic game, you play the role of a planeswalker—a powerful wizard who fights other planeswalkers for glory, knowledge, and conquest. Your deck of cards represents all the weapons in your arsenal. It contains the spells you know and the creatures you can summon to fight for you.

Trading card games like the Magic: The GatheringTCG combine collectable cards with a strategy game. You don't know what you'll get in a Magic booster pack. You just start a collection and trade with other players to get the cards you want.

The best part about a trading card game is that it's always changing. You design and build your own unique decks, and each Magic game you play is different. New Magic expansions are released a few times a year, and each new expansion brings new ways to stupefy and defeat your opponents.

The Colors of Magic

Magic players craft their own decks, selecting cards that suit their individual playing styles and strategies. Building a deck often focuses on taking advantage of the powers inherent in each of Magic's five mana colors.

White: The color of Justice White spellcasters use superior tactics, efficient creatures, and the power of righteousness against their foes.

Blue: The color of Wisdom Blue mages focus on using superior knowledge to gain control of a battle, and slowly gain the upper hand.

Black: The color of Ambition Black sorcerers are willing to do whatever it takes to win a battle, even if it means sacrificing everything to do so.

Red: The color of Chaos Red conjurers try to win as quickly and dramatically as possible, smashing and burning their way to a quick victory.

Green: the color of Nature Green shamans win duels through the brute force of mother nature, summoning giant creatures to squash their enemies.

What color will you play? It is entirely up to you!

Where to go from here

Some people play Magic just for fun, coming up with great theme decks or funny combinations of cards to play against their friends. For other players, Magic is a highly competitive game of skill, with hundreds of thousands of dollars up for grabs in professional tournaments. To others still, Magic is all about collecting and trading cards that feature breathtaking original art from some today's premier fantasy artists.

To learn more about the game, grab a friend and head down to your local game shop. You can buy cards, meet some new friends, and learn more about the game.

Another great way to get started is through watching demo videos on this site. Even if you know the basics of the game, you still might learn some tips or tricks to building decks or winning more.